BIO: Matthew SHADEK, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 849 & 850.
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  MATTHEW SHADEK, who has been prominent in the business affairs of Karthaus, 
Pa., for the last ten years and is identified with many of the enterprises 
contributing to its commercial importance, was born January 22, 1863, in 
Germany, and is a son of Michael and Margaret Shadek.  The parents of Mr. Shadek 
never came to America, the mother dying when Matthew was nine years old.
  Matthew Shadek left his native land and came to the United States when he was 
twenty-one years of age, as have hundreds of others.  Not all of these, however, 
have so rapidly secured independence or, within comparatively so short a time, 
have become useful and important residents of the communities in which they have 
chosen to live.  When Mr. Shadek reached America in 1884, he located first in 
Tioga County, Pa., and went to work at Wellsboro as a railroad section hand, his 
wages being $1.12 per day, and they were earned.  After he married he lived 
there two years, moving then to Peale, Clearfield County, where he remained six 
months, from there going to Morrisdale, in Clearfield County.  In 1889 he moved 
onto a farm on which he continued for thirteen years before coming to Karthaus.  
Mr. Shadek is a man quick to seize business opportunities.  He has been 
operating a saw mill across the river, in Center County, for the past five 
years, and is a member of the firm of Kelly & Shadek, coal operators, operating 
the Mt. Carmel and Mosquito Creek mines, having been interested in coal 
operating ever since coming to Karthaus.  He also owns and operates a first 
class livery, and is still further interested, having a restaurant and a grocery 
store.  All his business undertakings are prospering and he is one of the 
substantial men of the town.
  Mr. Shadek was married in 1880 to Miss Mary Hammes, who was born in Germany, 
and is a daughter of Nicholas and Susanna (Simon) Hammes, the former of whom is 
deceased.  Mrs. Hammes married secondly Stephen Young, who, now in his eighty-
seventh year, is the most venerable resident of Karthaus.  Mr. and Mrs. Young 
reside with Mr. and Mrs. Shadek.  They are members of the Catholic church.
  To Matthew Shadek and wife eleven children have been born, as follows:  
Michael, who operates the store and restaurant belonging to his father, married 
Edna Pecard and they have four daughters - Emma, Helen, Jennie and Agnes; Peter, 
who died at the age of nineteen years; Matthew, who married Clara Renaud, and 
they have three sons - Leo, Bernard and Leonard; John, who is a resident of 
Karthaus, married Mabel Renaud, and they have one son, Earl; Mary, who married 
Herman Coudreit, of Karthaus; and they have four children - Lawrence, Irene, 
Paul and Logan; Annie, who married James Renaud, and they have three children - 
Russell, Francis and Robert; and George August, Agatha, Nicholas, Paul and 
Joseph.  Mr. Shadek and family are members of St, John's and Paul's Catholic 
church.  He is a Democrat in politics.